It rained most of last week, so we didn’t pick vegetables and fruit until Sunday (August 24th). If you handle plants when they are wet, you can more easily transfer diseases between them.

peppers, eggplant, beans, and okra (hidden)

We got some nice ‘ichiban imp’ eggplant despite all the damage caused to the plants’ leaves by beetles. Bell peppers such as this ‘Takii’s ace’ can be picked while green or you can wait, as I did, until they turn red (and sweeter). The ‘yellow banana’ peppers also may be eaten before they turn orange or red. The pole beans are producing again, especially the ’emerite’ variety. We also picked some okra, which are somewhere under the pile of beans.

blackberry harvest

We got many blackberries, but had to discard many more as they were overripe.

You may have noticed that there were no tomatoes in this harvest. I won’t harvest any more tomatoes this year. You may not want to look at the next two photos as they are pretty gruesome, at least if you are a gardener.

diseased tomato plants

Rain is also good at spreading disease (via dripping and splashing), and the associated humid weather is ideal for growing fungus. What was confined to some of the lower leaves just days ago has taken over all of the tomato plants. All of the fruit has been infected and will rot before it can ripen.

tomato fruit rotting on the vine

The eggplant and peppers growing at the far end of the garden bed haven’t been affected.

Diseases that are similar to late blight include earlyblight (which doesn’t actually occur all that early in the season) and Septorialeaf spot. The effect on my tomato fruit looks more like late blight to me however.